You Newcomer Ed Speleers Says He and Costar Penn Badgley 'Bonded' over Fatherhood: 'We Connected'

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British actor Ed Speleers formed a special bond with You costar Penn Badgley.

Speaking with PEOPLE ahead of the Netflix hit's fourth season, the Downton Abbey alum, 34, said that there were plenty of similarities for him and Badgley to connect over from the very beginning.

"I can't speak for Penn himself, but I absolutely loved working with him from start to finish," Speleers tells PEOPLE. "I feel that we got on very well. We were a similar age. We're both dads. We connected a lot over that and music and football. And I feel that we pushed each other and we respected each other."

Speleers shares a daughter, born in 2018, and son Jude, 8, with wife Asia Macey, while the Gossip Girl alum, 36, shares a 2-year-old son with wife Domino Kirke and is stepdad to her 13-year-old son.

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During the season's filming in London, the two dads faced missing their families for stretches of time.

"He was working in London and away from his family at times, and I was to and froing, and sometimes away from mine. And we just got on over that," Speleers shares. "I feel we bonded."

"We just had lengthy chats. He loves to chat and we got on famously."

Netflix

Speleers is joining season 4 of Netflix's psychological thriller as Rhys Montrose, who the official You Instagram describes as "a good man in a cruel world," a characteristic that accompanies a video of Joe's [Badgley] narration of the newcomer character.

"Finally someone else I can relate to," the narration of Rhys Montrose begins. "By some unconventional turn of events, we both went from the bottom of society to the social stratosphere. It's nice to see someone else level-headed here."

According to Deadline, Speleers's character is described as a "dry and irreverent" author who published a memoir that launched him acclaim and pressure to step into a political career. Like Joe points out in the narration above, Rhys didn't always live an affluent life. In fact, he "lived a traumatic early life before he came into money, going to Oxford and making all the right friends."

The first three seasons of You are now streaming on Netflix. Part 1 of season 4 drops Feb. 10, followed by part 2 on March 10.